Hello learncritic. Welcome to the Atheist Forum.
To answer a few of your questions and assumptions:
1. "atheism" = from the Greek words a-, a negative prefix meaning "not, or without" and theos, theon, "god, gods". Therefore the meaning is "without a belief in any particular god or group of gods" in its widest sense.
2. Atheism is most definitely not in any way,shape, or form a religion. It is simply the lack of belief in any magical imaginary friends in the sky, or in the water, or in the ground, etc. etc.
3. It is not necessary to have religion to be moral, ethical, or to treat people right as you would have yourself be treated. The earliest example of a humanistic way of looking at ethics can be found in ancient China.
I am happy that you came here to learn. I advise that if you truly want to learn from the atheist/secular/freethought community that you become an armchair anthropologist and search for the intellectual material of atheists and freethinkers that are available on the internet. Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Bertrand Russell, Robert Green Ingersoll, and Paul Kurtz would be a good start. From there you could proceed with atheist/agnostic bloggers, there are plenty of them. Youtube videos of The Thinking Atheist, Amonra, etc.
There is one book I can recommend by Ibn Warraq (pen name) of a former Muslim who is now an atheist. It is entitled "Why I Am Not A Muslim."
And there are plenty of people here in the forums you can learn from as well.
Again, welcome, and learn much and have fun.
To answer a few of your questions and assumptions:
1. "atheism" = from the Greek words a-, a negative prefix meaning "not, or without" and theos, theon, "god, gods". Therefore the meaning is "without a belief in any particular god or group of gods" in its widest sense.
2. Atheism is most definitely not in any way,shape, or form a religion. It is simply the lack of belief in any magical imaginary friends in the sky, or in the water, or in the ground, etc. etc.
3. It is not necessary to have religion to be moral, ethical, or to treat people right as you would have yourself be treated. The earliest example of a humanistic way of looking at ethics can be found in ancient China.
I am happy that you came here to learn. I advise that if you truly want to learn from the atheist/secular/freethought community that you become an armchair anthropologist and search for the intellectual material of atheists and freethinkers that are available on the internet. Voltaire, Thomas Paine, Bertrand Russell, Robert Green Ingersoll, and Paul Kurtz would be a good start. From there you could proceed with atheist/agnostic bloggers, there are plenty of them. Youtube videos of The Thinking Atheist, Amonra, etc.
There is one book I can recommend by Ibn Warraq (pen name) of a former Muslim who is now an atheist. It is entitled "Why I Am Not A Muslim."
And there are plenty of people here in the forums you can learn from as well.
Again, welcome, and learn much and have fun.
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."--Thomas Jefferson
